AN active farmland sales market is being buoyed by historically low supply and pent-up demand, according to industry professionals in Strutt and Parker’s Edinburgh office.

Its Douglas Orr, said: “We recently launched a farm near Spean Bridge which has several dozen notes of interest and is likely to go to a closing date next month. Kilmonivaig Farm, a residential and amenity farm in a stunning location near Spean Bridge, offers permanent pasture, rough grazing, and open, amenity woodland of mainly native species.

“We currently have a number of properties being sold privately and it is a competitive market. Illustratively, an open market campaign for a livestock farm in the south of Scotland attracted significant competition at a closing date last month.

"There is certainly an appetite from buyers with demand outstripping supply and anything that has come to the market has been very well received, despite the unsettling circumstances of the last few months. We maintain a strong book of active purchasers throughout the UK and continue to receive enquiries from abroad.

"Meanwhile, our colleagues south of the Border reported a 3% rise in farmland values in the first half of 2020, although prices showed huge polarisation and significant regional variation.”

Kilmonivaig Farm, Spean Bridge, Inverness-shire, is a residential farm in the Great Glen, at its south-western end with views to Ben Nevis. Described as a residential and amenity farm it also has a share in the ownership of the River Lochy and its tributaries – one of the West Coast of Scotland’s best managed and most productive salmon and sea trout fisheries. Extending to approximately 93 acres in total, the land comprises permanent pasture, rough grazing, and open, amenity woodland of mainly native species.

Also on the market through S and P, is Muir Estate, Thornhill, Stirling, a woodland and amenity estate on the edge of the Trossachs. This is has a majestic Highland-fringe setting, combining a 21st century family-sized home within a predominantly wooded landscape comprising native woodland, coniferous plantations and commercial Christmas trees, extending to 188 acres. There's also a timber loading yard and an attractive four-acre loch.